Life in the Mine E-Book

Anthony Burton

• Herausgeber: Pitkin
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 52

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

Over 4,000 years of history lie in the seams of British mines, beginning all the way back in the New Stone Age. Large-scale coal mining in Britain developed during the Industrial Revolution, providing energy for industry and transportation in industrial areas from the 18th century to the 1950s. This classic Pitkin guide provides a history of mining in Britain as well as of the hard lives of those who worked in them. Child labour was a normal part of Victorian life, so women and children were found in the dangerous deep pits until 1842, while male miners relied on safety lamps and canaries to avoid mining disasters. Fascinating photographs accompany this guide's history of these people's lives, including their time outside of the mines, their homes and hobbies. Whole villages grew up around mines, with close comradeship and tightly knit mining communities emerging. Here is the story of what that life was like for so many, up until British mining's decline in the 19th and 20th centuries. Includes a list of mines, museums and heritage centres to visit.

Leseprobe

LIFE IN

THE MINE

ANTHONY BURTON

Pitkin Publishing

The Mill, Brimscombe Port

Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QG

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

This ebook edition first published in 2013

All rights reserved

Text © Pitkin Publishing, 2013

Written by Anthony Burton. The right of the Author, to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Edited by Gill Knappett.

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorized distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

EPUB ISBN 978 0 7524 9441 8

Original typesetting by Pitkin Publishing

CONTENTS

Important Dates

An Ancient Industry

T’owd Man

Deep Pits

The Steam Age

At the Coalface

Women in the Mines

Children in the Mines

The Safety Lamp

Mining Disasters

Tin and Copper

Ups and Downs

Masters and Men

The Miner at Home

Time Off

Changing Times

Places to Visit

Glossary

IMPORTANT DATES

c.2300 BC   Flint mining begins at Grimes Graves, Norfolk.

c.2000 BC   Mining for copper and tin begins.

c.500 BC   First iron ore mines opened.

AD 43   Romans settle in Britain and introduce new mining technology

1228   Earliest record of coal being sent from Tyneside to London.

1294   370lbs (170kg) of silver ore sent from Devon to King Edward I.

1556   Agricola’s De Re Metallica provides the first detailed illustrations of mining technology.

1686   First account of the use of a furnace for mine ventilation.

1705   First recorded colliery explosion at Gateshead: 30 miners died.

1712   Thomas Newcomen’s steam engine installed at a coalmine in Dudley, Staffordshire.

1769   James Watt takes out a patent for his steam engine.

1776   John Curr develops a system for moving trucks underground on iron rails.

1812   Opening of the world’s first successful steam railway at Middleton Colliery, Leeds.

1815   Sir Humphry Davy designs his safety lamp.

1863   Invention of mechanical coal cutter.

1919   Cornwall’s worst disaster at Levant Mine.

1947   Coal mines nationalized.

1985   The year-long miners’ strike against pit closures ends: 25 pits are closed immediately.

1991   Wheal Geevor, the last deep tin mine in Cornwall, closes.

2008   Tower Colliery, the last deep coal mine in South Wales, closes.

AN ANCIENT INDUSTRY

Men have been burrowing deep under the ground in Britain for more than 4,000 years. It all began in the New Stone Age when tools such as axes and knives were made out of flint. Some flint could be picked up at the surface, but the very best lay under a thick layer of chalk. Around 2300 BC, miners began digging pits as deep as 40 feet (12m) in an area now known as Grimes Graves in Norfolk. From the bottom of a pit they dug narrow tunnels through the chalk and began excavating the flint, using antlers as pickaxes and animals’ shoulder blades as shovels. The only illumination consisted of little bowls made from chalk that would have been filled with animal oil and lit to produce a flickering flame. Altogether 300–400 pits were sunk.

The Stone Age gave way to the Bronze Age (c.2300–700 BC) and then the Iron Age (c.700 BC–AD 43). Now miners went in search of the raw materials, the ores that could be smelted to make the different metals. Copper and tin that were used to make bronze were mostly found in south-west England, and merchants came to Cornwall from as far away as the eastern Mediterranean to trade in the valuable metals. Ancient copper mines have also been identified at Great Ormes Head in North Wales. Here the miners had to cut through solid rock, and they used a technique known as fire setting. A fire was lit against the rock face and allowed to burn fiercely. When the rock became red hot, water was dashed against it, splintering the stone. A similar technique was used at iron mines such as those at Clearwell Caves in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire.

T’OWD MAN

The strange name ‘T’Owd Man’ is Derbyshire dialect for ‘The Old Man’, and was used by the lead miners of that area to describe their predecessors who had started the industry. It almost certainly started with the Romans who really began the modern age of mining in Britain. They continued to work the older mines and also opened up new areas of exploration, such as the gold mines at Dolaucothi in Mid Wales. Here they introduced a whole new range of technologies. They began with a process called ‘hushing’. This involved creating a reservoir of water, which could be released to cascade down a hillside, sweeping away the thin surface soil to reveal the veins of ore underneath. To get the water to the top of the hill in the first place they had to construct aqueducts, running many miles to the nearest river. They also brought in a new machine, the waterwheel, to power pumps to drain water from the workings. The men who worked there enjoyed the luxury of a bathhouse – something British coal miners did not get on a regular basis until the second half of the 20th century.

STAKING A CLAIM